Various industrial processes for nitration of saturated hydrocarbons, particularly propane, have already been proposed. Nitration of propane, particularly by nitrogen peroxide, under pressure, leads to an orientation of the final products towards nitropropanes with a very clear predominance of 2-nitropropane. However, this product does not at present constitute the more usable nitroparaffin either in its use as a nitroparaffin or the derivatives that it makes possible for one to obtain.
One of the present industrial problems resides in the search for means making it posible to obtain in nitration operations a spectrum of products suited to market demands and therefore to achieve an industrial manufacturing unit having sufficient operational flexibility to meet these requirements. Further, use of less expensive materials more available in large amounts is also a considerable industrial objective. Use of ethane has appeared to provide a solution to these two problems.
However, nitration of ethane by standard nitration agents--nitric acid and nitrogen peroxide--makes it possible to obtain nitromethane and nitroethane only in proportions of 30% nitromethane and 70% nitroethane, which does not correspond to the needs of the market. Research on nitration of ethane was conducted at the Purdue Research Foundation in Indiana. Study was done on nitration of ethane at atmospheric pressure by a nitrating agent such as nitric acid or nitrogen peroxide (U.S. Pat. No. 2,071,122 and H. J. Hibshman et al, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 427-9). These laboratory tests conducted forty years ago and possibly in the interim do not seem to have led to an industrial embodiment not only because of the lack of correspondence between the products manufactured and user demands, but also because the more difficult recovery of ethane cannot be performed under the same conditions as for propane without greater energy consumption, because of the very high molar ratio C.sub.2 H.sub.6 /NO.sub.2.